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Correction: An article Monday about the Milwaukee city budget incorrectly stated that a Common Council committee defeated a measure dismantling the Police Department's Safety Division. The council's Finance & Personnel Committee endorsed an amendment to keep part of the safety staff on the payroll next year.

Aldermen could raise garbage fee

Increase would let residents continue to throw out large items

The Common Council's Finance & Personnel Committee on Wednesday will consider raising:

The solid waste fee from $150.48 to $171.87

The sewer fee from $86 to $95,

The storm water fee from $47 to $56,

The committee also will consider:

Cutting the snow removal fee from $35 to $30.

Milwaukee residents may have to pay higher garbage fees next year to avoid restrictions on throwing out old sofas and other big items.

Heading into the final stages of 2010 city budget action, the Common Council's Finance & Personnel Committee on Wednesday will consider boosting the solid waste fee from $150.48 to $171.87 a year for the average homeowner, or $1.59 more than Mayor Tom Barrett recommended, city budget director Mark Nicolini said.

Barrett's budget also would have ended the current practice of setting out large items that don't fit in garbage carts for pickup on regular garbage collection days, effective June 1. Instead, the city would have run spring and fall "clean and green" programs, instead of just one in the spring, to remove those items. Residents still would have been able to take large waste items to the city's self-help centers, as they do now.

But the finance panel sent the mayor's plan to the scrap heap during action on budget amendments last week. Ald. Michael Murphy, the committee chairman, said he feared many residents would still set out the big items, only to be ignored by garbage truck drivers, with the result that the city would become "incredibly dirty."

Ald. Bob Bauman agreed, noting that residents who left garbage outside would face $50 fines. That meant Barrett's plan would produce "very soiled neighborhoods and very angry constituents," and the time and energy that aldermen and public works officials spent straightening out problems would cancel out any projected saving, Bauman said.

The committee backed Murphy's amendment to keep the current system and reject the second "clean and green" program. To hold down spending, the panel also dropped Barrett's plan to add three regular Saturday garbage pickups on summer holiday weekends. Raising the garbage fee would keep the cost of the changes off the property tax levy.

Votes are also set Wednesday on several other fees. Barrett has proposed raising the sewer fee from $86 to $95, and the storm water fee from $47 to $56, but cutting the snow removal fee from $35 to $30, all for the average homeowner on an annual basis.

Separately, Murphy is seeking to raise permit fees for the largest special events, to help offset the cost of his amendment to cut the number of unpaid furlough days for police officers from four to two next year.

Murphy dropped his original plan to raise the night parking permit fee, from $44 to $50 a year, but Ald. Bob Donovan signaled he might revive that idea as part of his efforts to further reduce police furloughs. The night parking fee has not been increased since 1950, the aldermen said.

If aldermen approve the fee increases, the committee's version of the budget would boost the tax levy just $119,461 above the $247.4 million sought by Barrett, and the property tax rate of $8.91 per $1,000 assessed valuation would be less than half a penny higher than Barrett's recommendation, Nicolini said. That compares with this year's $237 million levy and $8.09 tax rate. Part of the increase in the tax rate reflects a 4% drop in the city's total assessed value.

All the committee's budget recommendations will go to the full council for action Friday, subject to line-item vetoes by Barrett.

In other budget matters:

• The finance panel recommended delaying a two-year, $4.6 million renovation of the city attorney's office. City Attorney Grant Langley's staff moved into temporary quarters in the Zeidler Municipal Building during City Hall restoration, and public works officials had hoped to revamp their eighth-floor offices before the lawyers moved back.

• Committee members also supported renewing $20 million in borrowing authority for a light rail system. Further action would be needed to borrow the money and proceed with the system. Planning is under way for a $64 million modern streetcar line downtown, funded largely by $54.5 million in federal money, but no construction is expected to start next year.

• Barrett's budget would eliminate the Police Department's Safety Division, transferring its responsibilities to other city employees. Panel members voiced concern over whether existing police staff could properly oversee crossing guards, the division's biggest job, but the committee defeated budget amendments to keep part of the safety staff on the payroll to aid in the transition.